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At age 40, with a thriving career at Bloomingdale’s in New York City, Fran Horowitz paused, asked herself what she wanted—and made a change.
Horowitz picked up her family—including a husband and two kids—and moved to Columbus, Ohio, where she began an upward trajectory at retail companies headquartered in the Midwestern city. That move eventually landed her the chief executive officer gig at Abercrombie & Fitch Co., which, at the time of her arrival in 2014, was in upheaval.
Fast-forward to today, and with Horowitz at the helm, A&F has made an astonishing turnaround. The thoughtfully orchestrated about-face (shares are up more than 40% since the start of the year) completed what Horowitz calls “phase one” of the journey.
Now, she says, her team can focus on phase two: growth and transformation.
“There’s no finish line,” she says. “Certainly we’ve made a lot of progress, but we still have some work to do.”
She attributes a great deal of the company’s progress to its give-back efforts.
In 2016, led by what A&F calls a groundswell of associate enthusiasm for an Ohio camp for children with serious illnesses, the company announced its biggest-ever philanthropic effort. It promised $15 million over five years to SeriousFun Children’s Network, an organization founded by actor Paul Newman that provides camp experiences to children with serious illnesses around the world. (The Ohio camp, Flying Horse Farms, is part of the network.)
The partnership includes register roundups at stores nationwide. It sends 100 A&F associates around the globe to serve as camp counselors every summer. And it is celebrated each year at the company’s A&F Challenge, a camp-themed, festival-style fundraiser that includes international music headliners (the headliner this year is Fitz and The Tantrums), a 5K, food, drinks and more. The event drew more than 4,000 guests and raised $3.5 million for SeriousFun in 2017, smashing its previous record, and bringing the total raised to date for SeriousFun to more than $6 million, and more than 45,000 volunteer hours from its associates.
Horowitz’s passion for this cause, which has rallied her associates for the greater good, is palpable. So is her passion for the company whose numbers, culture and reputation she’s shifted.
Here, she shares the lessons she’s learned as she leads and lives on her terms.
On choosing guts over fear
" People say you can’t change careers once you’ve reached 40, and I would have to beg to differ. I made the change because, interestingly, when you’re in department stores and you continue to go up the ladder, you get further and further from the product, and you really become what is essentially a real estate and insurance broker. That gave me big pause to say, Is that really what I want the next 20 years of my career to be like? So we packed up and moved out here with tremendous support from my husband and my family. And 14 years later, it’s been a great decision, personally and professionally."
On shedding her shoulds
"I’ve always had a fairly disciplined approach to work. I knew as I entered motherhood I was always going to have to keep a balance between getting done what I needed to get done as well as managing a family. I never felt I had to sit in my office and put time in just because my boss was there. I made that very clear from the beginning and was able to have the confidence to make sure I continued to do that. I probably broke the ice a little bit at Bloomingdale’s when I had my second child and asked for a little bit of flexibility in my schedule. That was '98, probably at the very beginning of all of the change in how people work today."
On the most rewarding part of living life on her terms
"The most rewarding part is a word I use a lot here—balance. We all need to find the right balance between work, family, personal enjoyment, making sure you find time to go to yoga, take walks, step away. I work very hard, but balance is my favorite word, and I use it for many different scenarios for myself personally and for the team here. Having that balance helps provide the perspective and foundation that we all need to be successful."
Fran believes balance is critical to success, with business performance, culture and reputation going hand-in-hand; she encourages her global team to find balance between work, home and contributing to the community. Striking the right balance isn't always easy, but the hard work of the past few years seems to be paying off.
